A Cursed Cat
by Corliss Kat
Summary: Andrew thinks that he is a normal kid living an almost normal life, but that was before the curse was broken. Now, he realizes the importantence of friends, and that evil can come in all shapes, sizes, ans ages. (I own nothing.) Based on The Familiars by Adam Jay Epstien and Andrew Jacobson.
1. Bland, Ordinary, Storybrook

Andrew thought that he was just an ordinary boy. He thought that his sister, Lynne, was an ordinary girl and his best friend, Adam, was an ordinary boy, too.  
They lived in a town called Storybrook that seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere. The clock tower didn't work. Andrew thought that it was a boring life. No one interesting ever came to Storybrook. He wasn't allowed to leave. No one left. There was only one school and it was packed with bullies. His sister didn't have any friends so he was forced to hang out with her. His best friend Adam didn't really mind. She liked the same things that he did.

"Andrew, are you sure that we should go and talk to Celina?" asked Adam.

Celina was the biggest bully in the whole school. Every kid was on her side. They either liked her or they were too afraid of her to say no. Andrew, Adam, and Lynne were almost the only ones that didn't go along with her, and they paid for it. She stole Andrew and Adam's stuff and turned everyone against Lynne.

"She took your iPad, I'm mainly doing this so that you don't have to tell your mom that your iPad is gone," said Andrew as he walked up to Celina. She was surrounded by many other people. "Celina, Adam want's his iPad back," said Andrew.

"Don't put my name in this," Adam whispered to Andrew.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Celina with that devious grin on her face.

"Yes you do and so do we. So give it back."

"I don't really want to talk to you now. So go away."

"Look, we don't want to talk to you either, but we need that iPad back."

"If it's Adam's iPad then he should be the one talking."

"What, me, I'm just trying to stay out of this," said Adam with an alarmed look on his face.

"This is about your iPad so help me out," said Andrew through clenched teeth.  
"Uh okay," Adam whispered back. "I want my iPad back," said Adam with his head down.

"I didn't hear you," said Celina.

"I want my iPad back," said Adam, this time a little louder.

"I don't have it with me," said Celina.

"But you stole it this morning," said Andrew.

"I think that Adam should be the one talking."

"See, I told you not to put my name in this. Now we might never get it back," whispered Adam.

"You said that you didn't care," Andrew whispered back.

"Now that I'm trapped here I might as well do something meaning full."

"Would you two stop whispering and go away," said Celina.

"That was exactly what we were about to do," said Adam as he started to walk away.

"Fine," said Andrew as he fallowed Adam.

* * *

Lynne had been in the library looking for a book that interested her when Andrew and Adam found her.

"What are you two doing here? I heard a rumor that you were standing up to Celina," said Lynne as she put down a book that she had been looking at.

"That's right. But it didn't exactly work," said Andrew even though he didn't want to tell the whole story.

"What happened?" She asked.

"We tried to get Adam's ipad back but Adam chickened out and didn't help me."

"That's not the whole story," said Adam. "I tried to help, but then Andrew tried to do something, and Celina said that I should be the only one talking, and then she told us to go away, and then I started to leave and Andrew fallowed me."

"I only got about half of that because your grammar was slightly poor structured and that you used the word 'and' way to much, but I get the point," said Lynne in the voice that she always used when she was correcting someone.

Lynne was sort of a know-it-all. Whenever she had the chance to she would prove that she was the smartest and the most clever in the class or even the whole school. Everyone already knew that she was the smartest but not all of them believed that she was the most clever.

Many times kids would tease her about being so smart and nerdy, which didn't make sense to Lynne because she thought that being smart was a gift. The ones that teased her didn't have this gift. Often times when Andrew and Adam would find her in the library crying, they would say that those kids were just jealous. Lynne believed them, but she also thought that they might be teasing her because they thought that it was fun to pick on an orphan girl that is easy to hurt.

Andrew and Lynne's parents had died in a fire five years ago. Andrew had been 8 and Lynne had been 7. Her and her brother lived with their aunt, Lora, and their uncle, Kal. Ever since then Lynne would be able to cry about almost every insult that was thrown at her. Her hiding place was often the library because the middle school library was almost always deserted.

None of the kids in middle school liked the library except for Lynne, Adam, and normally Andrew. Andrew wasn't as into reading as his sister and his best friend. And the librarian was only there for the mornings because the school couldn't afford her to stay for long because barely anyone checked out books.

"So any way, what are you guys doing here?" asked Lynne as she walk up to a book shelf to put away a book.

"I don't really have any lunch, and recess isn't fun when you have to face Celina during it," said Andrew sitting down at a table that was by the book shelf Lynne was at.

"Did Aunty forget to pack you lunch again?" asked Lynne.

"She doesn't like me, remember? She likes you."

"You don't think that she is doing it on purpose do you?"

"She's got to be because she always does it," said Andrew. "Do you have any extra lunch?"

Lynne got out her lunch bag and fumbled through it. "I have a couple chips and half a sandwich." She gave hime the chips and the sandwich.

"And to think that the school day is only halfway through," said Adam as he went and sat down next to Andrew.

"And even when we get home it isn't going to be a place that we like to go to."  
"It isn't that bad, is it?" asked Adam.

"It is, but if mom and dad were still around, I mean..." Andrew saw the look on his sister's face drop. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"I know you didn't," she said softly. "It just came out of your mouth."

Then the bell rang. "We better go to class," said Andrew. "Come on. We can all walk together."

* * *

**Hello everyone, this is a crossover between my favorite book series and one of may favorite TV shows. **

**I hope you all enjoy it, please review!**


	2. A Book, An Explosion, And A Library

Later that day, during after-school-care (which Andrew found completely boring) they went to the library to find a book for Lynne to read that she hadn't already read.

"What about this one," said Andrew as he held out a Harry Potter book.

"Andrew, do you really think that I didn't read the Harry Potter books?" said Lynne.

"What about this," said Adam as he held up a book called The Familiars.

"I've never seen that before. Where was it?" asked Lynne.

"It was just on the shelf," was the reply from Adam.

"Is this just one book, or a whole series?" asked Lynne.

"It looks like there are three books. So I guess it's a series," said Andrew as he fingered through some other books.

"I need to read them!" Lynne grabbed all three of the books and went to a table to start reading.

* * *

About an hour later Lynne stopped reading, but only because she was hungry. They left the school and went to Granny's Diner.

"What do we do now," said Adam just after they finished and were about to pay the bill.

"We could go back to the library," said Lynne, hopefully.

"No, we are not going back there," said Andrew.

"I thought I closed the library," said a voice that could only match up to one person. The Mayor, Regina.

"Hi, Madam Mayor," said Lynne when she turned around and saw who was sitting behind them. "What was that you said about how you closed the library?"

"You were talking about going back to a library, I closed down the public library."

"Well we weren't talking about the public library. We were talking about the school library," snapped Andrew. "And has anyone ever told you that it's rude to bud into other people's conversations?" Andrew really didn't like the mayor.

"And has anyone told you to respect the woman who runs the town that you live in?" said Regina.

"Actually, no one has. All they tell me is to mind my elders." Andrew snapped back.

"Andrew, what are you doing?" asked Lynne under clenched teeth.

"You know what, I've made up my mind," said Regina. "I'm going to close the school library as well." Regina got up to leave.

"Wait! Madam Mayor, you can't do this!" cried Lynne, running up to Regina.  
"Actually, I can. Now I will take my leave."

"Wait!" But she was already gone. "We are going back to the library and we are going to borrow all of my favorite books and never return them," said Lynne with a look of determination on her face.

"Isn't that steeling?" asked Adam.

"It isn't if I use my savings that I've been carrying around for about two weeks incase I saw a book at the library and I really wanted to keep it."

"How do you do that and not have it stolen by Celina?" asked Andrew.  
"She steels stuff from you, not from me."

"I'll take your word for it. Now lets get to the library quickly."

* * *

"Okay, I want this one, that one, that one, that one, that one," said Lynne. She seemed to go on forever. When she finally found every book that she already read and liked, she went looking for books that she hadn't read yet. She would sample them and then decide if it was good enough to keep.

"How much money do you have?" asked Adam.

"About 12 years of savings," replied Lynne.

"Don't you buy stuff?" asked Adam.

"There aren't any book shops in this town and I don't like toys and stuff that other kids my age like." Lynne grabbed about 40 more books then went to buy them. "And when you think about it, I'm doing the Mayor a favor. Now there are only a couple of books that she has to put in storage. Oh, and the librarian barley gets paid. I feel sorry for her. Now she is going to get a couple hundred dollars."

"Where did you get hundreds of dollars?" asked Adam.

"Grand parents," was the simple answer from Lynne.

"Okay, lets get these books then get out of hear before our Madame thinks-she's-better-than-everyone Mayor comes to shut it down," said Andrew.

"Okay," said Lynne with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I'm really going to miss this place." Lynne walked over to the librarian. "Excuse me. Is it possible for me to buy all these books."

"I guess you can if you have enough to pay for 98 books," said the librarian. "We are closing soon, so you might as well get the books that you want. There aren't any book stores around here."

Lynne handed the librarian 300 dollars.

"Thank you," said they librarian.

"I guess Madam fooffy Mayor already came here,'' said Andrew.

"Well at least I was able to get all of my favorite books." Lynne walked around to the back of the shelfs. She sighed. As she went up to the door she took her last looks at this wonderful place that she spent all the time that she wasn't in a classroom at. It was hard saying good bye.

Andrew could see the look on his sister's face. Now he felt guilty. If he hadn't exploded at Granny's Diner this would never have happened. He felt as if Regina had put a curse on everything.


	3. Truly Cursed

It was a Saturday when Andrew was walking around that he bumped into Mayor Regina again.

"Well look who it is," she said as she stopped in front of him. "The boy who thought he could stand up to me without getting something taken away."

"I was just stating what was on my mind," he said with an exasperated voice.  
"And you ended up ruining your sister's life."

"You don't know me and my sister!"

"I think I got a pretty good idea of what you are like from yesterday. You speak your mind no matter what the cost."

"I feel sorry for the town."

"Why is that?"

"It has a real evil queen as Mayor."

Regina got quite for a little while, but only a little while.

"You listen here," she growled at him. "Maybe I don't know you that well, but I've seen many kids like you before. They think they can insult the Mayor, but they can't. Take my advice, never think that you are higher than me." And with that she left.

Andrew was a little stunned. All that just because I called her an evil queen? he thought to himself as he started to walk down to Granny's Diner. He had asked Adam and Lynne to meet him there. They had a lot to talk about.

When he got there they were already there.

"Guess who I ran into on my way hear," said Andrew when he sat down.

"A dog named Gerald!" said Adam.

"What, no," said Andrew. "I ran into Madam thinks-she's-everything Mayor. She lectured me."

"Oh no. What did you say to her this time?" asked Lynne.

"Nothing. All I did was call her an evil queen."

"Andrew, that is something," said Lynne.

Sometimes Andrew felt like she was his older sister. She seemed to always think of the smarter solution to everything. She also made sure he didn't get into a lot of trouble, or at least she tried. He somehow always managed to get into some trouble, even if it wasn't on purpose.

"It isn't that bad. I'm just not supposed to talk bad about her anymore. Well at least not to her face."

"You should just drop talking like that about her altogether," said Lynne.

"I can't. I mean, it's hard not to. She's just so aggravating."

"A middle schooler says that the Mayor is aggravating is strange to hear," said Adam right before he took a bite of his pastrami sandwich.

"Okay, okay. You guys are right, but I can't just let her close down the library and not let her know how I feel."

"Letting her know how you felt made her close down the library," said Lynne.

"I know. I'm sorry. It is my fault, but I don't want the Mayor ruling my life!"

"Lets just go for a walk," said Lynne. "We can get a box for the food."

* * *

On Monday the middle schoolers were assigned reading buddies with the 4th graders (something that Andrew was not looking forward to). He was assigned a kid named Henry.

"So, what book do you want to read first," said Andrew as they sat down for their first meeting together.

"I was thinking we could read this fairytale book that is titled Once Upon A Time," said Henry, who just happened to be Regina's adopted son.

"Really, a fairytale book?" said Andrew. He was not having any fun.

"Yes. It's about how everyone in this town is cursed."

"I believe you there," said Andrew quietly.

"No, a real curse. Everyone here is a character from a book."

"Okay then, who am I?"

"I don't know."

"Of course you don't."

"But I do know who my mom is."

"The Mayor?"

"Yup."

"And who is she?"

"The evil queen from Snow White."

"Does she know who she is?"

"Yup. Her, you, mea and my real mom are the only ones that know. I think that my mom is the only one that remembers. It's a part of the curse that she cast on us. No one remembers, no one can leave, and no one can come."

It was all making sense. No wonder no one new ever came. And no wonder Regina got mad when he called her an evil queen. Because she thought that he knew. I can never let her know that I know, he thought.

"Is everyone here from a story?"

"Yup."

"Can you help me find out who I am?" Andrew was so curious, he didn't care that he was talking to a 10 year old boy.

"We can do that instead of reading once a day after school." He sounded like he really loved this whole fairytale business.

"Sure. Can we also find out who my sister and my best friend are?"

"Sure. Every day for an hour. We can tell people that we're reading."

Andrew couldn't believe it. He was a person from a story. The mayor was a queen. What next?

Then a thought hit him. "Is it possible for me to be an animal back when I was a character?"

"I never thought about that," said Henry. "I guess it's possible."

What if I'm an animal? thought Andrew. He wasn't sure if that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

"How do you break the curse?"

"Only one person can break the curse. Her name is Emma. She's my real mom."

"Emma Swan?"

"Yup."

"I've heard of her."

"Of course you've heard of her. My mother who is the Mayor wants her gone."

"So when is she going to break the curse?"

"She doesn't really know how to yet. First she needs to believe in the curse. Then she can break it. But it might take a while for her to believe."

"So how long?"

"I just told you, I don't know."

"Well, how do we start?"

"Research. Do you know where we can get a whole lot of books?"

"I think so. Do you happen to know who the reading buddy for Lynne my sister is?"

Then, coincidentally, Lynne walked into the room.

"There you are. I was going to ask if you had a book to read," said Lynne.

"Shouldn't you be with you reading partner?" asked Andrew.

"I don't have one. The teachers said that I read to fast and my partner wouldn't be able to catch up..."

"We all are characters!"

"Okay, wait, what?" Andrew could tell that he lost her with that last line.

"Everyone one in this town is a cursed character from a story." Andrew paused to let everything sink in to his sister's mind. He thought that it might be easy to convince her because, unlike Andrew, she still believed in magic. But now he was having second thoughts about his beliefs.

"Are you saying that we're all characters from books or stories?"

"Yup,'' said Henry.

"That is so cool! Who am I?!"

"We don't really know who you are and who I am," said Andrew as he motioned for Lynne to sit down.

"How do we find out who we are?" asked Lynne as she sat down next to Andrew.  
"Research," said Henry and Andrew at the same time.

"We need a lot of books and read them and see if anything is jogged up," said Andrew. He was honestly just guessing. He had no idea how the books would help.

"No," said Henry. "We need to read the books and see if we find a connection between the characters."

"Well that can work too," said Andrew, trying to hide to fact that he really didn't know what to do.

"We just don't know where to find the books," said Henry.

"That isn't going to be a problem," said Lynne. "I practically bought all the books in the library right before it closed down."

"Can we have some?" asked Henry.

"Maybe. If you guys let me come along when you have your meetings, yes. If you don't, than no. Which is it going to be?"

"You can come along," said Andrew. At the moment he just wanted to find out who he was.

"You've got a deal. I'll go get some books."


	4. Telling The News

Two weeks later Andrew bumped into Regina again. Well, he didn't really bump into her, she kind of grabbed him and pulled him a side.

"Who are you?" asked Regina in that devilish voice she got when she was just about to threaten someone.

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Andrew.

"Who are you? What's your name?"

"My name is Andrew Cermoon. I thought you already knew that."

"I do. I meant your real name. Your name from there." How did she know? thought Andrew. How did she find out?

"I still don't know what you mean." He was trying to not act like he knew what she meant.

"Of course. Thats how you want to act." At this point Andrew had no idea what she meant. But he was trying his best to keep his cool and not freak.

"I have somewhere to be," said Andrew.

"Alright."

* * *

"She knows," said Andrew as he walked into Lynne's bedroom when he got to the house.

"What?" she asked. She had been reading before he had entered.

"Did you call Adam?"

"Yeah, he didn't really get what I meant when I tried to explain the character thing to him. I told him to come over and that you will explain the rest."

"Good. We need him hear. He needs to know the whole character sha-bang."

"I'm hear!" Adam was hear.

"Good, we need to talk to you," said Andrew.

"Oh no, am I in trouble. Oh, wait, this isn't school," said Adam. Andrew didn't really get how Adam thought that he was at school, but he didn't say anything.

"Okay," said Lynne. "Where do we start?"

"First of all, what did you pick up from the phone call," asked Andrew.

"We all are books," said Adam with a bland look on his face.

"What, no. We all are characters from books and fairytales. Mayor Crazy-Pants is the evil queen," said Andrew.

"So thats why she's Gerald the dog," said Adam.

"Adam, there isn't a dog named Gerald," said Lynne.

"But I thought that Regina was Gerald."

"No," said Andrew.

"We are all book characters. Not books. Characters," said Lynne.

"Okay. Who am I?"

"Who am I?" cawed Lynne's parrot from in the corner.

"Shut up," said Lynne.

"Shut up," cawed the parrot again. Lynne threw a slipper at it.

"Sorry. Keep talking."

"Okay," said Andrew. "We don't know who any of us are."

"How do we find out?"

"We can wait for the curse to be broken."

"What curse?" asked Adam.

"Regina but a curse on the town," said Andrew. "Everyone hear are characters. They can't leave."

"So we wait?"

"I guess."

"Then I'll just carry on living until I'm broken. I mean till the curse is broken."

"You do that," said Andrew.


	5. Broken

Andrew and Lynne were up in Lynne's room. Andrew was bored so he was looking out Lynne's window. He could see the clock tower. It was around the end of summer and he wasn't sure that he was ready to go back to school. He would be in 7th grade. He wasn't ready to return to the drama. All the teasing. All the name calling. All the bullying.

Lynne was reading through the last book of the Familiars series. Andrew knew that Lynne could read fast, but he had never seen her read as fast as she did when she was reading the Familiars series. She seemed especially interested in that book series.

Andrew wanted to leave and go find Adam, but Adam had told Andrew that he was getting ready for the first day of school. All Andrew could do was look out the window and wait for something interesting to happen.

Then a sudden breeze blew at Andrew's face, which was strange because the window wasn't open.

Then he remembered.

Andrew remembered who he was, who Lynne was, and who Adam was. Andrew remembered that he was a cat born in Maiden Mere but raised on the streets of Bridgetower. He had fought against an evil grey hare with the help of his friends Skylar and Gilbert. Lynne was Skylar and Adam was Gilbert. He remembered. But that could mean only one thing.

The curse was broken.

Lynne looked up from her book. She had a look on her face and Andrew could tell that she remembered.

"I remember," said Andrew. "I remember!"

"So do I!" said Lynne. "Lets go find Adam."

They went outside. They didn't expect that the town would be different, but it strangely felt different. Everyone seemed really happy. It made sense, but it felt strange.

It didn't take long for them to find Adam. He was in the middle of the street hopping around.

"Adam, what are you doing?" called Lynne.

"I thought that sense I remember that I am a frog, I would get my frog hopping skills back," said Adam. Adam walked over to where Andrew and Lynne were standing.

"What do we do now?" asked Lynne.

"I don't know," said Andrew. As he spoke a weird looking fog started to roll in. It was purple and as it hit him Andrew felt a weird surge all over his body. He didn't know what it was, but whatever it was, it was powerful.

A little after the smoke had cleared Andrew saw a mob running in the direction of the Mayor's house. They saw Dr. Hopper run over to the people on the other side of the street. Those people where Marry Margret, Emma Swan, and some other people.

"There you are," said Dr. Hopper to the other group. "Come with me. Dr. Whale's whipped everyone into a frenzy. They're going to Regina's house. They're going to kill her."

"Did you hear that?" whispered Lynne.

"Yeah," said Adam. "The man over there just said that the hotdog stand is closing down."

"No, not that. Dr. Hopper said that that mob is going to kill Regina."

"Oh. What do we do?" asked Adam.

"We do nothing," said Andrew.

"What?" asked Lynne with a look of horror on her face. "We aren't going to let her die!"

"Think of all the bad things that she did. We wouldn't have to worry about her doing any other bad stuff."

"No." Lynne started to fallow the mob and Adam followed her.

"Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" muttered Andrew.

* * *

When they got to Regina's house the mob had already reached her. Dr. Whale was banging at the door. Regina opened it.

"Can I help you?" Regina asked.

"That smirk isn't going to last," said Whale.

"What do we do know?" whispered Adam. "We can't stand up to Whale." Whale started to threaten Regina.

"And now you're going to kill me?" Regina asked.

"Eventually. But first you need to suffer."

"Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us." Regina pushed Whale back.

"What do we do?" asked Lynne. "She surely is going to do something bad. She's the evil queen."

"First of all, we need all these people to calm down," said Andrew.

"How are we going to do that? We're just a bunch of middle schoolers," whispered Lynne.

"Exactly," said Andrew. "We're kids. That means we can get grown-ups to do stuff for us."

"It's not that easy," said Lynne.

"Actually it is," said Andrew. "Marry Margret and Emma already know whats going on. We just need to stall Whale and Regina."

"And how are we going to do that?" asked Lynne.

Suddenly, Andrew screamed. "Ooooooooow!" He fell down on the ground.

"Andrew, what are you doing?" whispered Lynne.

"Improvising," Andrew whispered back. "You people trampled my foot!" Andrew was screaming. People were staring at him and Regina had an odd look on her face.

Then Emma, Mary Margret, and the other person came.

"Stop," yelled Emma. "Let her go."

Andrew was still on the ground and Mary Margret looked at him with an expression similar to Regina's.

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Because she saved you," said the other person. Andrew couldn't seem to remember his name. He knew that it was somewhere at the back of his mind, but he didn't really want to put it in the front of his mind.

"Everyone's yelling," whispered Lynne. "Lets get out of here." The three slipped through the crowd and off of Regina's property. Regina looked as Andrew walked away, his foot completely fine.

"What do we do know?" asked Adam.

"I don't know," Andrew mumbled.

"The curse is broken now," said Lynne. "There's probably trouble at every corner."

"But which corner do we check first?" asked Andrew, looking around. "This town seemed so small before, but now it's so big."

"Lets check the one place we know the best," suggested Lynne.

"Granny's Diner?" asked Adam, hopefully.

"No," said Lynne. "The school."

"Oh. That was my second guess."

"Okay," said Andrew. "Let's go."

"This is boring," said Adam once they got to the school. "Nobody's here. And would they be? It's a weekend."

"I don't know," said Lynne. "I just thought we'd check. We have nothing else to do."

"And this is taking so long," said Adam in a whinny voice. "When will something interesting happen?"

"Well a curse was just broken," said Lynne. "And some people almost killed Regina. I don't think that it is going to get any better."

"Look it's getting dark," said Andrew. "We should get back home."

"Were's home?" asked Andrew. "Now that the curse is broken it seems like we don't have a home."

"Lets just go back to the house that we used to live in. We can find a better place later."

The stars were already out when they made their way onto the street.

"It's strange that there isn't anyone-Ahhhhhhhh!" Andrew looked behind him after Lynne had screamed. There was a skeleton like figure with a dark, ripped hood on.

"What is that?" asked Adam in a horrified voice. They all started to back away.

"I don't know," said Andrew.

"We need to get back to the house!" said Lynne. "We can stay there and wait 'til this thing gets out of here!"

They took off running in the direction of Lynne and Andrew's house. Lynne was still in complete shock and Andrew could see it in her face.

"We're going to be fine," Andrew whispered to Lynne.

"I know," said Lynne. "But why is that thing here? And what is it?"

"I don't know." Andrew looked back and saw that the thing was chasing them and it was fast.

Once they got to the house they ran inside and locked to door.

"What do we do now?" whispered Lynne, as if the thing could hear them from inside the house.

"We should hide," said Andrew. "There's a closet in the attic. It's big enough for three people."

"What if it comes in and we can't escape?" asked Lynne. "There's only one entrance and exit in the attic. What if the thing comes in and we can't get out?"

"That's not going to happen," said Andrew in a reassuring voice. "We're going to be..."

BANG!

A loud banging noise cut Andrew off.

"What was that?" whispered Lynne with fear in her voice.

"I think I know what it is," whispered Adam with almost the same amount of fear.

"How do we get out of here?" asked Andrew.

"I don't know," said Lynne. She was turning pale. "I told you we shouldn't come up here."

"We might be able to get to another room before it reaches us," said Andrew.

"Lets hurry," said Adam.

They hurried out of the closet and to the attic door. But when Andrew opened it the thing was standing there. But to Andrew's surprise, it pushed past them. It seemed to search around the attic then it pushed past them again and went down stairs. They heard a thump that most deficiently was a door slamming.

"Is it gone?" whispered Lynne.

"I don't know," whispered Adam.

"We need to go down and find out," said Andrew.

"But what if it's not gone?" asked Lynne.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," said Andrew. "And it didn't seem like it wanted to hurt us."

They walked down the stairs slowly and cautiously, prepared for anything to jump out at them at any moment. But nothing did. By now Andrew was convinced that the thing was gone.

But there was another problem. They house had been torn to shreds by it. Everything was a mess.

"What happened to the place?" asked Adam.

"I don't know," said Lynne.

"I do," said Andrew. "I know what did it."


	6. I Am Three!

"This is going to take forever to fix," said Lynne as she and Adam and Andrew were trying to fix up Andrew and Lynne's house. "Can't you just use your telekinesis or something?" Andrew knew that that question was directed towards him. In their old land Andrew had telekinesis, Lynne had the power of casting illusions, and Adam could see the future...sort of.

"It's not that easy," he said with a sigh.

"I know that magic isn't easy for you, but we need it now."

"So your saying that its easy for you and not for me?"

"Well, yeah. But you said yourself that you weren't very good at your magic because you weren't trained for that first years of your life." Lynn said.

"Well why don't you try cast an illusion?"

"Maybe I will."

"Even though we found out that you guys aren't siblings, you sure still argue like you are," said Adam.

"But casting illusions won't help us now," said Lynne, ignoring what Adam said.

"The Skylar I knew would never give up an opportunity to use her magic."

"Okay. I will try cast an illusion." She took a deep breath and held her arm out. But nothing happened. "Why isn't this working?" she asked in an irritated voice. "It's supposed to be working!"

"Calm down. Spell mess up with me all the time and I don't let it get on my nerve."

"But your used to it. Spells never work for you. They always work for me! It's supposed to be working!"

"Calm down, calm down. You just got to get the hang of it. You haven't done it in 28 years. It'll have that effect."

"If you were still a frog and your tongue stopped working would you be calm?!"

"No, but its different." Said Adam.

"I used to cast illusions as much as you uses to your tongue!"

"Well if it makes you feel better, I can't use my tongue that way anymore."

"Well it doesn't make me feel better!" She shouted.

"Can we just leave the house now?" asked Andrew. "We can go get some breakfast."

"I don't have time for breakfast. I need my magic back!"

"Stop shouting," said Andrew. "We can go talk to Regina after. We can ask her to bring back magic."

"No. We can't just go and talk to Regina. She'll yell at us. Especially you, Andrew. You know that."

"I don't think I know anything right now," muttered Andrew.

"We need to see what she is don't when she doesn't know it," said Lynne.

"So we're going to spy on her?" asked Adam.

"Exactly."

* * *

They went outside started to quickly make there way over to Regina's house.

"Why do you need magic anyway?" asked Adam. "I lived fine without it when I couldn't use it."

"I'm different then you," said Lynne. "I need magic because I need extra power. If I had had extra power when I was bullied everything would have been easier. Sometimes it's nice to have a little extra power or determination."

"But you don't need power to survive," said Andrew. He was looking down.

"I know," said Lynne. "Survival and power are different things. But sometimes power can help."

Andrew wasn't watching where he was going and he ran right into a person.

"Sorry," he said.

"That's okay," said the person. Andrew thought he looked familiar. Then he remembered that he had seen him before. A day ago at Regina's house when the mob was there.

"What's your name?" asked Andrew.

"Excuse me?"

"You look familiar. What's your name?"

"Andrew, come on!" called Lynne. She and Adam were ahead of him.

"Just a second!" He turned his attention back to the man. "What's your name?"

"David," the man said. "Now I guess it's Prince Charming too. And James."

"Okay," said Andrew, slowly.

"Look, I'm kind of in a rush so could you let me through?" Andrew stepped out of the way. The man passed him and passed Lynne and Adam.

"What was that all about?" asked Lynne when Andrew had caught up to them.

"I remembered that man from somewhere. I needed to know his name."

"Well it looks like he is going in the direction that we're going," said Adam. He pointed at the man as he walked up Regina's driveway.

"We better get there quickly," said Lynne as she quickened her pace. "We might be able to see what he's up to."

When they reached the house the man was already in there. They quietly crept up to one of the windows and peered in.

"Tell me about this," said David, James, prince charming. He had a tattered hat in his hands.

"Surprised you don't have armed guards around the clock," said Regina. It was obvious to Andrew that she didn't want David/James/Prince Charming there.

"Don't need 'em. We both know if you step outside there's a line a mile long for your head."

"Well he seems very sure of himself," whispered Lynne. She would have said more, but Andrew put a hand over her mouth. He wanted to hear what was going on.

"Who would risk coming at me?" asked Regina.

"Take your chances then. But I think that little wallpaper trick was an anomaly."

"What wallpaper trick?" whispered Adam. "And what's an anomaly?" Andrew had to put his other hand on Adam's mouth and make sure that Lynne didn't pull his other on off of her mouth to answer the last question.

"Right now the only thing keeping you alive is that Henry wishes it." Andrew had missed part of what he had said because of Lynne and Adam. "Now this." David, James, Prince Charming held up the hat.

"It's the hat that pulled your loved ones away," said Regina.

"Well where did you get it?" They started to walk into a different room.

"Come on," whispered Andrew. They quietly and quickly shifted to a different window that could see into the other room.

"You know what? Maybe you should be less concerned with hats and more concerned with taking care of my son."

"Oh, because you took such great care of him."

"I will not listen to child care lectures from a man who put his daughter in a box and shipped her to Maine."

"Okay, listen, I need my family. There's magic now there has to be ways to follow them."

"Follow them where? Into a sucking airless void? And good luck trying to get magic to work."

"Ah, frustrated are we? Well-wait, I just saw someone outside to window."

"Run," said Andrew. The three ran as fast as possible.

"What if they see us?" asked Adam as they sprinted down the street.

"It doesn't matter," said Andrew. "You heard him right? Regina can't do anything to us. She doesn't have magic and a lot of people want to kill her. We're safe from Regina."

"But what about that other guy?" asked Adam. "The one that saw us."

"I don't know," said Andrew.

"And I still don't know what an anomaly is!"

"An anomaly is something that deactivates from its standard, normal, or expected," said Lynne.

"One more question," said Adam. "What does deactivates mean and what does standard mean?"

"I'll tell you later. We have other things to worry about now."

"What's going on over there?" asked Andrew. He was pointing towards a huge group of people in front of city hall. Everyone was frantic and running around.

"I don't know," said Lynne. "Maybe there's a..." Then they heard a phone ringing. "Oh, that's mine." Lynne pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Hello? Wait, who is this? No. What? Who is this? Yes. What?" Andrew grabbed the phone and hung up. "Why did you do that?"

"It probably was a scam."

"I don't know," said Lynne. "The voice sounded strangely familiar. Never mind. Let's just find Regina and find a way to force her to give us our magic." Lynne's voice seemed troubled. She seemed frightened. Andrew wasn't exactly sure why, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with that phone call.

"Are you saying that we should go back to Regina's house?" asked Adam. "We just ran away from there!"

"Yes" said Lynne. "We need our magic back. No matter what the costs are." Lynne started to walk in the direction of Regina's house. Before Andrew and Adam followed, they shared a look. Adam looked scared and Andrew looked worried. But one thing was in common about the look on there faces: confusion.

"Wait!" Andrew called to Lynne.

"What?" Lynne ran back over to where Adam and Andrew were.

"This seems important," said Andrew.

"Yeah, it is important because we need our magic," said Lynne.

"No not that," said Andrew. "This meeting. Maybe they might have someplace we can stay so we don't have to sleep in our house right now."

"Magic is more important. I'de rather sleep on the streets with magic than sleep in a bed without magic."

"It's not that important, is it?"

"Yes it is."

Then a small man and a bunch of other small men ran into the huge group. "Terrible news!" one of the men started shouting. "Terrible news! We're out of the town limits. Tell them who you think you are Sneezy."

"Will you stop calling me that, you know who I am. I'm Tom Clark I own the dark star pharmacy. What's going on here?" Said the one who had just been called Sneezy.

"If you cross the town border you lose you memory all over again."

"And coming back doesn't fix it?" asked Dr. Hopper.

"If it did would I have run in hear yelling terrible news?!"

"This isn't good," said Lynne. "We can't leave the town."

"Why would we need to leave the town?" asked Adam. "We don't need to go anywhere."

"Not yet, but we might later," said Lynne.

"You know something we don't," said Andrew. "What do you know?"

"I don't know what your talking about," said Lynne.

"You know something that we don't," Andrew repeated.

"Well I'm not suprised that I know more than you," said Lynne, defensively.

"That phone call," said Andrew. "Someone told you something."

"They told me nothing, because you took the phone from me before I could ask anything!"

"Why do you really want your magic?"

"Because I'm me," said Lynne. "I need my magic. Wether I'm an animal or a human. I need my magic."

"Fine," said Andrew. "But I'm not going on a crazy goose chase to find a way for us to cross." Andrew started walking towards Regina's house. Adam was close behind. Lynne seemed to be paralyzed for a second. She didn't move a muscle. She just stared at Andrew and Adam's backs. No one would have been able to read the expression on her face. All one could do was look at her face and wonder what she was thinking. And there were so many possibilities of what it might be.

* * *

They reached Regina's house.

"So what do you suppose we do now?" asked Andrew. Adam knew that Andrew was trying to get Lynne to say what she knew, but he didn't think that Andrew was doing a good job.

"We go inside and we talk to her," said Lynne.

"Really?" asked Andrew. "And what makes you think that she is going to listen to us?"

"Well we could spy on her again, but I thought it was aggravating you."

"Spying is much less 'aggravating' then talking to Regina."

They walked up to her house.

"I don't think she's there," said Lynne as she peered through one of the windows.

"Or she might just be in a different room," said Andrew. Lynne looked at him and rolled her eyes. Then she walked over to the door and tried to open it.

"What are you doing?" asked Andrew.

"She's obviously not home," said Lynne. "So I am getting," she banged at the door, "in," she banged again, "there." The door flew open. "I did it." Lynne seemed almost surprised, almost. "You see, sometimes extra power and determination does come in handy."

They walked in.

"Where do you think she would keep her special secret things?" asked Lynne as she opened cabinets and drawers.

"In her room," said Adam.

"No," said Lynne. "That would be to obvious. She's a smart person. She would hide it somewhere else."

"Well I don't think anyone would expect three middle schoolers to be able to break into a locked house," said Andrew.

"I don't think it's here," said Lynne.

"And I take that you know exactly what it is that we're looking for," said Andrew.

"I don't feel any magic here," said Lynne. "I would be able to tell if she had magic bottled up in here."

"So what do we do now?" as soon as Andrew said that they heard a noise.

"Oh no," said Lynne. "She's here." The three rushed into a room and locked the door.

"What do we do now?" asked Adam.

"I don't think she's coming inside," said Lynne. The three looked out the window and saw Regina sitting on a bench under her apple tree. She had a book in her hand. She opened the book and stared at the page she had flipped to. That's when Andrew noticed that the apples on the tree were all rotten. But then something strange happened. The words on the page seemed to float off of the book. They flew up to the tree. And then the apples became ripe again. "She does have magic," whispered Lynne. "Magic is here."

"We need to get out of here," said Andrew.

"Maybe there's a back door," said Adam.

"Your right," said Lynne. "Your a genius."

"I am?" asked Adam.

"We can get out of here through the back door." The three unlocked the door and dashed to the back door.

* * *

"How many back doors does she have?" asked Adam after they passed the fifth back door.

"A lot," said Lynne. "But we need to go to the one that leads out closest to Mr. Golds shop."

"Why?" asked Adam.

"Because he can help us. Regina can't."

"How do you know that he can help us?" asked Andrew

"I don't," said Lynne. "But his shop seems magical, and it said property of Mr. Gold on the first page."

"How did you see the first page?'' asked Adam.

"I caught a glimpse of it when Regina turned the page."

"Okay," said Andrew. "I think this is the door that leads out into the street."

"Let's try it," said Adam. Lynne flipped the lock and opened the door.

"Looks like you guessed correct," said Lynne. "Come on. We need to get to the shop."

They crossed the street to Mr. Golds shop. Andrew looked on the sign in the window.

"It says closed," he said.

"I don't care," said Lynne.

"Maybe we should come back later," said Adam.

"We don't need to," said Lynne. "I need to get magic." Then suddently a huge crowd passed them. They were going really fast. Some were speeding in there cars and others were sprinting.

"What's going on?" asked Adam. Andrew didn't answer. He just took off running. Adam looked at Lynne. He shrugged and followed Andrew.

"Where are you guys going?" she yelled. "Wait!"

* * *

Everyone was crowded around the town line. There was one man at the front blocking everyone with his truck. Then Andrew realized that that was the guy who said that his name was James, David and Prince Charming.

Lynne finally caught up to them.

Then the guy started talking.

"Listen to me! Listen. If you cross that line, you're gonna be lost. Everyone who loves you will lose you. But there's something worse. You'll lose yourself. Look, I get wanting to leave here. I do. And I get that it's easier to let go of bad memories, but... even bad memories are part of us. David, Storybrooke David was... is ... weak... confused... and he hurt the woman I love. I wouldn't give up being Charming just to be him. But you know what? I wouldn't make the other trade either, because that David reminds me not only of whom I lost... But of who I want to be. My weaknesses and my strengths. David and The Prince. I am both... Just like you. You are both. The town is both. We are both. Stay here, and every choice is open to you. Live in the woods if you want. Hell, live in a shoe if you want. Or eat frozen burritos and write software. Let's open Granny's and the school and get back to work. I will protect you. She won't be able to hurt any of us, not as long as I'm alive. Not as long as we all come together... As we did before... As we shall do again."

Everyone applauded.

"What a wonderful speech," said Lynne, sarcastically. "I wrote a better speech when I was running for class secretary in first grade." That time she wasn't being sarcastic.

People started to clear the street.

"Well," said Adam. "I just have one thing to say. I am three!" Lynne did a face palm and Andrew just shook his head.


	7. Back To School

"I can't believe we have to go back to school," said Adam as he, Lynne, and Andrew walked down the street to the school.

"I was because of that strange guy's speech," said Lynne.

"I bet you that no one was listening and they only clapped because they were so happy that he had finished," said Adam.

"Well school isn't all bad," said Andrew. "I mean, now that everyone knows who they are they won't act the way they did before."

"I'm willing to bet that their normal selves are just as mean as their cursed selves," said Lynne.

"Well, either way, we have to go and I don't think there's anything we can do about it."

At school things were more hectic than every. Not all of the teachers were there. Not all of the kids were there. And there were new kids that none of them had every seen. When the bell rang for home room most of the kids were happy to be able to get out of the confusion.

Inside of the class room everything seemed to be the same. There were the same desks. The same chairs. There were the same posters covering to walls. And there was the same teacher at the front of the room calling for all the students attention. The thing that was different was that there was a new student at the back of the room. He had taken a seat at one of the empty desks. At first Andrew was glad there was a new kid. He seemed shy and probably could use some friends. Andrew thought that it would be a good idea to go and say hello to him at recess. But then the kid opened his mouth and started talking in the weirdest voice, and saying the most obnoxious things.

"Hello, I'm Ely and I am the best person in the world," said the new kid who's name was obviously Ely. He had stood up when he said that and Andrew could see that his blond hair looked as white as a sheet of paper. There were only a couple brownish spots.

Never mind, Andrew thought to himself, I am not going to talk to him at recess.

"Does anyone here like Minecaft?" said Ely.

"Ely, there will be a time to ask people that later," said the teacher, Mrs. Eyvan.

"Okay." Ely sat back down.

Everyone was really happy when school was over that day. It had been exhausting to try to learn as two people with two slightly different personalities. And it was agrivating when everyone was asking everyone who they really were. At one point Adam hid in his locker.

"Boy I'm I happy that's over," said Andrew as he Lynne, and Adam walked over to Granny's Diner.

"Me, too," said Lynne. "I couldn't go anywhere without someone asking me who I really was."

"Me neither," said Adam. "It was so stressful."

"I bet it's going to be like this for the rest of the year," said Andrew.

"I can't wait till June," said Lynne. "Then the school year will be over and we can do something more interesting.

* * *

At art class there was a huge conversation going on about Minecraft. Andrew was listening. Even though Andrew used to play Minecraft, he didn't take part in the conversation because it was many the whole class arguing. Lynne had never played Minecraft, and she was the reasonable one in the conversation.

"Hey, Charles, can you throw a snow ball in challenge mode in Minecraft?" asked Ely.

"No you can't," replied Charles.

"Yes you can," said Jared. Jared was Ely's best friend, which Andrew thought was very strange because a day ago they had been complete enemies.

"No you can't," said Charles. "I've tried it before." Andrew found this all quite amusing, even though he didn't know which one of them was correct.

"I say that you can," said Ely. "And you can. I bet you $5640. So you owe me $5640."

"Guys, it's just a video game," said Lynne. "Let it go!" But this time, just like all the other times, no one paid any attention to her.

"One Friday when we have electronics for the last five minutes I'm going to test it," said Martha. Martha was a girl who had a crush on Jared.

"Yeah," said Ely. "But I know I'm correct."

"Okay class, please lower your voices or we won't be able to talk at all," said Ms. Nina.

"This will continue later!" declared Ely. Lynne rolled her eyes.

The next day didn't bring anything better.

"Okay, class," said Mrs. Eyvan. "We're going to have a language arts test." Everyone groaned.

"No," whined Adam.

"Now, I know you all aren't very happy about the test, but you have to try your best."

"I don't think I'll live through this," said Adam. He looked like he wasn't breathing at all.

"Just breath, Adam," said Lynne.

"What'll happen if I don't?"

"You'll turn the color of your shirt." Adam looked down at his shirt. It was navy blue.

"Wow, that is way past red."

Mrs. Eyvan passed out the tests.

"This has been the worst week ever," said Andrew after school when they were walking to Lynne and Andrew's house.

"I second that," said Lynne.

"Me too," said Adam.


End file.
